Though it's not the official end of the summer (the Autumnal Equinox is on September 22), Labor Day has traditionally meant the start of school (if you lived in more Northern states) and the early fall shopping sales. Various government services are closed today, as are banks. Gothamist will be publishing on a lighter schedule today, but we'll see you tomorrow with more.
And the U.S. Department of Labor on the history of Labor Day: "...a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country."





From wikipedia:
"Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in the United States and Canada since the 1880s. The September date has remained unchanged, even though the two governments were encouraged to adopt May 1 as Labor Day, the date celebrated by the majority of the world. Moving the holiday, in addition to violating U.S. tradition, could have been viewed as aligning U.S. labor movements with internationist sympathies."
The "History of Labor Day" link appears to be broken. NYC generally gave us "Labor Day," but I have an 1880 non-NYC citation on my Big Apple site, www.barrypopik.com.